Gone
by Pillowsticks
Summary: Ash's year is almost up, but does he have anyone to return to?
1. One

Disclaimer: Sadly, I own none of the characters. They all belong to L.J. Smith  
  
Summary: What happens when one loses their soulmate forever?  
  
Gone  
  
By pillowsticks  
  
"And now that it's almost the millennium, we have to step up our search for the fourth Wild Power. Remember three is not enough!" Ash could see that Thierry was really getting into his motivation speech. He was pacing back and forth at the front of the dining room table. His hands were making motions, stressing his words.  
  
Ash slouched in his seat at the table, his long legs stretched out under the table, his fingers idly twirling a pen around; the perfect picture of a bored, lazy cat. But he was paying attention; it was just that he had already heard the motivation speech five hundred times before so it really didn't interest him.  
  
Someone kicked the back of his chair, causing him to drop the pen and straighten up. Ash turned around and glared at the guy behind him. Quinn. A smirking Quinn. Ash gave him an icy glare. That just caused Quinn's smirk to get wider. That short son of a— Rashel, Quinn's soulmate, lightly smacked Quinn's shoulder to get him to pay attention to Thierry's monologue. The smirk was now off Quinn's face and on Ash's.  
  
He turned around and picked the pen up again. "Now, we have Delos –One from the land of the kings long forgotten--; Iliana –One from the hearth which still holds the spark--; and Jez –One from the Day World where two eyes are watching. We need to find the person who matches this part of the prophecy –One from the twilight to be one with the dark. Any ideas, people?"  
  
Maggie, a fox-haired girl, raised her hand. Thierry acknowledged her hand. "Maybe it's talking about—" A cry of pain interrupted her.  
  
Ash had bent over double, grabbing at his heart. He was gasping in pain. Quinn got up and grabbed Ash before he fell out of his chair. The whole room broke into mutterings, each worried about Ash. Thea Harman appeared at Ash's side. She knelt next to him and placed her hands on his shoulders, giving him some leverage. "What's wrong?" she asked, her brown eyes worried.  
  
He looked at her with black eyes, eyes full of pain. "It's—" His eyes shut tight and his teeth clenched, a hiss escaping between them. "It—it feels like my heart's been torn in two!"  
  
"Could it be a heart attack?" asked Iliana, a silver-haired Wild Power.  
  
Quinn looked at her from across the table. "Vampires don't get heart attacks."  
  
Her violet eyes widened. "Oh."  
  
Ash pressed back in his chair, a keening sound coming out of his mouth. "What could be hurting him? Some sort of magical attack?" asked Keller.  
  
"I don't think so. The wards around the house would've been set off," replied Thierry who had joined the crowd around Ash's chair.  
  
"Mary-Lynette!" Ash shouted as he bent over again.  
  
"Mary—who?" asked Iliana. Everyone started muttering again. What would his soulmate have to do with this? Could something have happened to her?  
  
"She's dead." The voice was quiet, yet so authoritative that everyone had become quiet at the first word. It had come from Aradia, the Mother of all the Witches. She stood at the end of the table, her hands resting lightly on the back of a chair. Her blind eyes were facing the crowd. "Only when your soulmate has left this world will you feel such pain. It will feel like you are only half a person. It will feel like your heart is torn in two." She put a quiet emphasis on the last phrase.  
  
"No! Not her! Not mine!" A painful groan sounded in Ash's throat. His ash blond hair was stuck to his head with sweat. His eyes were now a dark blue of grief.  
  
Thea looked at Aradia in helplessness. "Isn't there anything you can do? Anything we can do?" Aradia looked at Thea, her dark eyes sad. "No, I don't think we can. If his soulmate is dead . . ." she trailed off. They all glanced at each other. No one should have that happen to him.  
  
"Arrh!" With one last shout of pain, Ash slumped into unconsciousness. 


	2. Two

The Daybreakers had carried him to a guest bedroom in Thierry's mansion after he had passed out and laid him out on the bed. All had left except Aradia, who placed herself in a chair next to his bed. She sat quietly waiting for him to come to, placing her hands lovingly on her swelling stomach. Despite the sad situation, she smiled as she thought of her growing child. Although not technically a mother yet, the Witch's Council had allowed her to become their Mother since she was going to be a mother. Settling into her chair, Aradia closed her eyes remembering how she found her soulmate as she waited for Ash to wake up. When at last he woke it was getting dark. He didn't remember exactly what had happened. All he knew was that his heart hurt. He saw Aradia sitting in her chair and then he remembered. His eyes turned dark violet in grief. Turning his face away from her he started to cry quietly, his shoulders shaking with his sorrow. For the first time in his life, he cried in front of someone. Aradia placed her hand hesitantly on his shoulder, silently giving him some comfort. Eventually his tears stopped. Lying there in the quiet, he had asked her in a hoarse voice to leave him alone. She left him alone in the bedroom. There wasn't anything to be done about his pain. He'd tried sleeping, but every time he closed his eyes, Mary- Lynette's face would appear before his face: her soft dark hair and sparkling blue eyes. And after her face he'd remember the way she'd looked that night under the stars, the night they'd first kissed. The night she'd killed Jeremy. That had been another thing he'd failed to do. Kill the 'wolf. Maybe that's why the Goddess had taken her; Ash didn't deserve a soulmate especially one as gentle and interesting and beautiful as his Mare. His heart still hurt, but it would probably continue to hurt until he was staked. Even then he'd probably still hurt after. She had been his soulmate, for Goddess's sake! Just two more weeks and I would've been back. Just two more weeks! Ash sat up, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. Goddess, why? The year was almost up! I could've been there! I could've protected her from-I don't even know how she died! He bent over, covering his face with his hands, feeling like he was the worst soulmate in the world. Was it some sort of illness that brought about her . . . death? No, he'd have felt her suffering far earlier than today. A car accident? The roof suddenly falling down on her head? A murder? Animal attack? That only brought back memories of that werewolf. His hands dropped from his face. Could it have-No, he's dead, burnt to a crisp. Shouldn't his sisters have protected her? They knew she was his soulmate. What about Mark? Didn't he love his sister? Why hadn't he protected her, stopped her from dying? Ash could feel the anger building up against them. They had let her die!! He lifted his face from his hands and stared blindly out the window. But no, he knew that his family and Mark would have done everything they could to prevent Mary-Lynette from dying. His anger faded away as he saw the faint stars in the dark sky. She had loved the stars. He knew that one of the reasons she had first agreed to become a vampire was that she wanted to see the stars with her naked eye. He remembered the shocked look on her face when she had shined the light from the flashlight in his eyes. Since it had been dark, his pupils had been dilated and the light had hurt! If only he knew what had happened to her! That's it! He stood up and began pacing. Nothing prevented him from finding out what happened. But he just didn't want to see her lying peacefully in some coffin. But again, he couldn't miss on knowing what had happened, or at least saying a last good- bye. He stopped near the window, his fierce yellow eyes looking up at the stars remembering her. His decision was made, he was returning to Briar Creek. 


	3. Three

Three days. It had taken him three days to reach Briar Creek, Oregon. If his damn father hadn't come to the city to send Ash to Florida to check on James and Poppy, he could've been here a day earlier. And damn James and Poppy had delayed him another day, needing help recruiting a gang of young vampires for Circle Daybreak. He stood on a hill. The same hill that he had stood on last year when he had first met Mare. The hot sun beat down upon his golden head, but he didn't really feel it. His focus was on a wooden Victorian-style house. Burdock Farm. He was irrationally angry at his family, including Jade's boy, Mark. They better tell me what happened and why they couldn't save her, or so help me, they are dead, he thought. "And it better be a good reason," he growled as he made his way down the hill. __ He knocked on the door of the house. It opened. "Ash!" The normally cool and fearless Kestrel sounded surprised and a bit scared. Her golden eyes glanced behind her, as if she were checking her chances of escape, and back to his face, not quite meeting his eyes. His eyes were dark as he replied, "Kestrel. Surprised?" "Yes-no. No. I'm not surprised," she stammered as he pushed his way past her and walked into the living room. Jade and Mark sat on the couch. As Ash entered, they stood and stared at him. "Hi, Ash," Jade greeted him; her light voice was weighed down by fear. Mark gave him a stiff nod. Ash walked over to a chair across from the couch and sat in it. Kestrel entered and went over to Mark and Jade. All three stood there and stared apprehensively at Ash. He looked back, his eyes brownish-red with anger. "Sit." They all sat, sitting on the edge of the couch, ready to jump and run if Ash decided to attack them. "Where's Rowan?" Ash asked. He wanted them all together so he could yell at them. "Upstairs," Kestrel answered tersely. -Rowan!- he mind-shouted. She was upstairs in a room. He could feel her jump and she immediately put up a wall around her thoughts. -Ash? What--- He cut her off. -Get yourself down here.- And just to make her jump again, he threw a mind-probe at her wall. He could feel her panic as she pushed the mind-probe away. -Get down here,- he ordered again. He sensed her submission and withdrew his mind from hers. When she arrived in the living room, Ash could see his serene sister was not doing well. Her long brown hair was wrestled into a very messy bun and she had slightly purple under-eye circles. She nodded to him and went to sit on the already crowded couch. For a long moment he just sat there and looked at them. Kestrel was on one end her normally regal bearing, slumped into a defeated and tired posture. Jade sat next to Kestrel, her long silver-gold hair hanging listlessly around her face, her eyes dark with emotion. Fear? Or grief? Mark's appearance was the worst. His tanned face was pale, and his hair was dirty and uncombed. And his eyes, Mary-Lynette's eyes, were glazed over with lack of sleep and crystal-clear sorrow. Their haggard appearance caused Ash's anger to fade. He no longer wanted to yell at them because they, just as he did, had their grief to help them suffer. Ash sat back in his chair and asked, "What happened?" At first they just stared blankly at him. Then they glanced at one another, silently discussing with each other. Looking back at him, Rowan spoke. "Four days ago, we all went to Bunny's farm." "One of her mares-um, horses," Jade corrected quickly, sliding a wary glance at Ash. He tilted his head slightly, wordlessly allowing her to go on. "One of her horses had dropped a foal and she wanted us to see it." "The horse was a new mother; the foal was her first," Mark added softly, staring at the floor as if the memory of that day was being played across its shiny surface. Jade reached over to take Mark's hand, comforting him silently. "Mare wanted to get a closer look at the dark colt. It really was a beautiful animal," Rowan said, taking up the story. "We never thought that she would be in danger; the foal was just a baby." Rowan's voice caught and her eyes shut, seeing the whole thing in her mind. Ash could see the guilt etched on each of their faces. Kestrel's husky voice filled the silence. "But we forgot about the mother. As Mare walked up to the new horse, its mother started charging toward her. We were all on the other side of the field, separated from her by a wooden fence. The horse saw a stranger approaching her offspring, so she charged Mare-" she paused. "And kicked Mare with her hind legs, sending Mare high into the air. She landed hard on the field." The last sentence, Mark spoke so quietly that if the other four hadn't been vampires, they wouldn't have heard him. "By this time, we were all on the field so we all ran to Mare as Bunny and her stable hands tried to subdue the mother horse." Rowan's eyes were still closed as she said this. "Mare was-she was," Jade spoke, trying to get the painful words out. As the story had progressed, Ash had slumped into his chair, head tilted back. His face was strained from sorrow, tears escaping his closed eyes. But when Jade started talking, something was changing. His heart no longer felt so incomplete, the pain was lessening. "She was dying, so Rowan-" He stopped listening as he tried to figure out what was happening. He sat up, his movement interrupting Jade. The four on the couch looked at him in confusion. Suddenly he knew. He stood, ran out of the living room and up the stairs to the room Rowan had been in when he first arrived. The rest of the family followed him, hoping he wouldn't kill them afterwards. Ash barreled through the door and stopped abruptly in the doorway, staring in astonishment and growing joy at the bed. There lay his beautiful Mary- Lynette, her dark hair spread across the pillow, her blue eyes open and staring at the ceiling. She wasn't dead. She wasn't dead! She was alive! He went quickly to the bed and threw his arms around her. Jade, Mark, Kestrel, and Rowan stood in the doorway, the worry and grief gone from their faces, replaced by smiles of relief and love. Ash was crying in earnest now, not caring that everyone could see him as he held Mare tightly in his arms, burying his face in her hair. She hugged him back just as tightly, her face hidden in the crook of his neck. Pulling away slightly, he ran his hands through her hair so he could look at her and asked, "How-" but stopped as she smiled at him. He stared blankly at her, not quite processing what he was seeing. She looked the same, more beautiful even, except now, her canine teeth were long and delicate, gently indenting her lower lip. Then it hit him, Mary-Lynette was a vampire. FINIS 


End file.
